It was really fun, although hot as fuck, i would suggest waiting til October to visit, or go in early Spring. If you do go in summer you will need a battery hand fan and a solar umbrella, and a handkerchief if youre a sweater like i am. Went to Tokyo, Kyoto and Hakone. It was always the country i wanted to visit the most. AMA.
Did you visit any arcades or game centers?
We only went to Taito arcade in Akihabara, ive never seen so many people who are so good at rhythm games. It does seem like there are more claw machine places than straight up video game arcades. The claw machines are often visible from the street, and the actual arcade is on a different floor.
Taito arcade
Badass. Love the Ninja Warriors by them.
What did you eat and how was it? How was the noise, both visual and auditory? Did you see any leftist related sites, or any fairly obscure sites? Did you pet any nice cats or dogs or other animals? Were you sociable with locals, or did you mostly just keep to yourself? How did you find the transit?
I could google half these things but that would be no fun.
Ate lots of fish things at fish markets and an omakase restaurant. I prefer sushi and nigiri mostly, my gf loves oysters.
It’s a massive city with so much happening. Some parts were definitely most visually stimulating like Akihabara. I always have concert earplugs with me in case of loud noises but I was ok, and i mostly have those for hearing protection, not so much for auditory related issues.
I’m not sure what you mean by sites. Like locations? There are tons of little shrines all over, but i didnt see anything leftist related.
Saw some cats, they werent coming up to me though.
Didn’t really talk to any locals who didn’t work at a place i was at. Lots of workers seem to know some english, but Japanese seem to keep to themselves mostly. When on a train that was mostly japanese people it was pretty fuckin quiet.
Getting around on trains there was easier than New York City. Way better signage and google maps is very good about telling you what station, platform and even the best train car(so youre near the best station exit). Without cell phones it would have been insane figuring everything out.
What was your favorite restaurant and food?
“fast” food was ramen, we went to Ichiran a couple times, they have private booths to eat at solo(although i was with my gf haha)
Fancier food: PST Pizza in Tokyo was maybe the best wood fired pizza ive had. they had a pizza with shaved ice tomato that was awesome. And we had omakase at a place called Sushi Punch. The chef there was a funny guy. Also it was located basically off an alley, on the 7th floor of a building. Tokyo is so vertical it’s hard to comprehend. You see tons of street level stores and restaurants, and then having a dank meal on the 7th floor is weird to my american brain.